Microsoft announced they are retiring the SC-400 Administering Information Protection and Compliance Certification! In this video we cover everything you need to know about the certification!
Links
Video Summary
- SC-400 Exam Retirement: Microsoft is retiring the SC-400 exam and the associated Information Protection and Compliance Administrator certification on May 31, 2025.
- Reason for Retirement: The certification is being retired due to feedback that it covers two distinct roles—data security/information protection and compliance—which should have separate credentials.
- New Certification: A new certification, SC-401 (Microsoft Certified Information Security Administrator), will replace SC-400, focusing solely on information protection.
- Advice for Current Candidates: If you’re already studying for the SC-400 exam, it’s recommended to complete it if you’re close to finishing. If not, consider the new certification or other applied skills.
- No New Compliance Certification: Unfortunately, there won’t be a new certification specifically for compliance roles. Instead, Microsoft offers two applied skills: Implement Retention, Discovery, and Communication Compliance, and Implement Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention using Microsoft Purview.
For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
Video Transcript
Last week, I heard rumors about a second certification retiring in 2025, and today those rumors came true. Microsoft is retiring the SC-400 exam and the associated Information Protection and Compliance Administrator Associate certification. In this video, we’ll cover everything you need to know about this retirement, including the date, the reason why Microsoft is doing it, the impact on you, and the replacement certification. Let’s get started.
Microsoft just published a blog post on the Microsoft Tech Community titled “Validate Critical Information Security Skills with Our New Certification,” which covers a brand new certification they are releasing. Towards the bottom of the blog post, there’s a paragraph stating that they are retiring the Information Protection and Compliance Administrator Associate certification.
It’s a bit crazy to me that unless you follow this channel or check out many different places, you wouldn’t know about this. If you go to the SC-400 exam page today or even the exam and assessments lab retirement page, none of those are marked as retiring. So, make sure you subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss out on important videos like this one.
Back to our retirement topic: the SC-400 exam, the Information Protection and Compliance Administrator certification, and the renewal assessment will all be retired on May 31, 2025. We did get an almost four-month notice, which is always appreciated.
Now, you might wonder why Microsoft is doing this. Microsoft said they received consistent feedback that this certification includes two separate roles—data security/information protection and compliance professionals—and that each role should have its own validation solution or credential. That’s why they are splitting up this certification into two different paths: an information protection path and a compliance path. We’ll talk about them a bit in the future because those paths are not equal in the way that Microsoft invested in them.
First, let me answer some of the questions I’m sure you have. What if you’re currently studying for the SC-400 exam? If you’re almost done studying and your employer pays for it, just go for it. The certification will show up as expired this time next year anyway, but it will always remain on your transcript as a certification that you successfully passed. If you’re just thinking about it but haven’t started studying yet or don’t have a bonus attached to it, I would recommend looking at the new certification or some of the existing applied skills that we’ll talk about in a minute.
Second question: what happens if you already earned the certification? If you already passed the exam and have the certification, check if you can renew it before May 31, 2025, and then decide if you want to renew it or not. It will end up as expired eventually, whether it’s in a few months or a year, so it’s really up to you if you want to renew it to keep it active for another year.
Third question, and I get this one a lot because I know a lot of Microsoft partners are watching the channel: what should you do if you’re going for the Solutions Partner for Security or other accreditations and need the certification? The Microsoft partner team probably found out about the retirement at the same time as everyone else did.
So, go get the certification and also work on the replacement certification because there’s quite a bit of overlap. This way, you are good today and for the future as well. I’m sure they will publish updated guidance closer to the actual retirement date, but for now, do not delay your accreditation as a Microsoft partner—just go take it.
Now that we have covered the retirement, let’s talk about the replacement. I have both good and bad news, depending on whether you’re specializing in information protection or compliance. Microsoft is going to release a replacement certification, exam number SC-401, which gives you the Microsoft Certified Information Security Administrator certification.
This certification completely removes the compliance aspect from the SC-400 exam and only focuses on the information protection part of things. I want to keep this video short, but on my channel, you’ll find a second video in which we dive deeper into the SC-401 certification, the objectives covered, and all that information.
Now, the bad news: if you were doing the SC-400 exam because you specialize in the compliance part of things, Microsoft unfortunately said they aren’t creating a new certification for compliance-related roles. Instead, the options in front of you are two different applied skills: Implement Retention, Discovery, and Communication Compliance in Microsoft Purview, and Implement Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention using Microsoft Purview.
This is it for this short video, but I want to know what you think about the retirement of the SC-400 exam and the associated Information Protection and Compliance Administrator Associate certification. Do you agree that those roles should have been separated, or do you think that combining information protection and compliance made sense?
Please let me know in the comments below. If you want to learn more about the SC-401 exam that’s replacing the SC-400, make sure you check out the cards appearing on your screen right now or the links in the description below. And if you missed it, did you know exam DP-203 is also getting retired in a few months? Of course, make sure you like the video and subscribe to the channel to get the latest Microsoft certification news.
